Making the Medals

London Design Festival commissioned London-based jewellery designer Hannah Martin to create a unique award for the British Land Celebration of Design Awards. Hannah is the Creative Director of Hannah Martin London. She founded the brand in 2005 following her graduation from Central Saint Martins, and after her return to London from Paris where she worked with one of the most internationally recognised names in fine jewellery.

Hannah approached the design and fabrication of the Medals as she would a piece of jewellery. She dedicated the same attention to building the narrative behind the design, and in producing the Medals used the same highly skilled process of model making, hand-carving, setting, polishing and hallmarking.

“In the initial discussions with London Design Festival and Pentagram we talked a lot about London, what signified London, and how this could be represented. The idea of a bird in flight felt like it struck the right note with a sense of freedom of thought and a feeling of being able to fly to great heights.”

“What better bird to use than the once ubiquitous ‘cockney sparrow’. I looked at other great celebrations of design that had happened in London historically - which led me to reference The Great Exhibition of 1851 and the original Crystal Palace that was constructed to house it. I took a lot of the graphic references from here.”

Hannah Martin

Hannah is the Creative Director and Founder of Hannah Martin, established in 2005. Graduating with a first class degree from Central Saint Martins, Hannah spent time in Paris working with international fine jewellery ateliers, before her return to London in 2005. Hannah is a self-proclaimed collector of all things beautiful, luxurious or just plain macabre; and believes that jewellery should be created to be handed down through the generations.

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London Design Festival is an annual event, held to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world and as the gateway to the international creative community.